Res Gestae

Ammianus Marcellinus

Ammianus Marcellinus. Ammianus Marcellinus, with an English translation, Vols. I-III. Rolfe, John C., translator. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; W. Heinemann, 1935-1940 (printing).

From this seed of the Magi, as the ancient records relate, seven men after the death of Cambyses mounted the Persian

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throne, but (we are told), they were overthrown by the party of Darius, who made himself king by the neighing of a horse.[*](The seven men were those who conspired against the usurper Smerdis in 512 B.C., one of whom was Darius. They agreed that the one whose horse neighed first should be king. By a trick of his groom Oebares, Darius was chosen and reigned until 485 B.C. None of the other six mounted the throne. See Hdt. iii. 70 ff.)

In this neighbourhood the Medic oil is made. If a missile is smeared with this oil and shot somewhat slowly from a loosened bow (for it is extinguished by a swift flight), wherever it lands it burns persistently; and if one tries to put it out with water, he makes it burn the more fiercely, and it can be quelled in no other way than by throwing dust upon it.[*](Cf. 4, 15, above, where Ammianus uses similar language of the malleoli; and 6, 16.)

Now, the oil is made in this way. Those who are skilled in such matters take oil of general use, mix it with a certain herb, and let it stand for a long time and thicken, until it gets magic power from the material. Another kind, like a thicker sort of oil, is native to Persia, and (as I have said)[*](6, 16, above.) is called in that language naphtha.

In these lands are many scattered cities; greater than all the rest are Zombis, Patigran and Gazaca.[*](Called Gaza by Strabo and Pliny, the capital of Atropatene.) Conspicuous for their wealth and their mighty walls are Heraclia, Arsacia, Europos,[*](According to Strabo, xi. 13, 6, Arsacia and Europos were the same city, also called Khaga or Khagae.) Cyropolis and Ecbatana,[*](Cf. Hdt. i. 98; to-day Hamadan.) all situated at the foot of

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Mount Iasonius in the land of the Syromedi.[*](The part of Media which lies before Persia.)

Many streams flow through this country, of which the greatest are the Choaspes, Gyndes,[*](This river is in Syria, not in Media.) Amardus, Charinda, Cambyses, and Cyrus. To this last, a great and beautiful river, the elder Cyrus, that lovable king, when he was hastening on his way to seize the realms of the Scythians, gave that name in place of its older one, because it is valiant, as he himself also was said to be, and forcing its way with the exercise of great power, as he did, flows into the Caspian Sea.